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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BKrOKE THE 



Hdu Jlmp|ire Agricultural ^ocietg, 



THIED ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 

IN MEREDITH-BRIDGE, OCT. 7, 1852. 



BY WILLIAM aklNG, ESQ., 

EDITOR OF THE BOSTON " JOURNAL. OF AGRICULTURE. 



^1^4 



WITH THE 



REMARKS OF HON. FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



L^BOSTON: 

BAZIN & CnANDLER, PRINTERS, 37 CORNHILL, 

1853. 



ADDRESS. 



BY WILLIAM S. KING, MANTON, R. I. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen, of the New Hampshire 
Agricultural Society, — 

It is a truth, that all have their prejudices. There 
is no man, no class of men, no nation, . that has not 
prejudices, peculiar to the individual, the class, and the 
people. - 

The Lawyer, reared with a reverence for black-letter, 
and the mould of age, bows with a delighted awe before 
some statute, with its steel-trap clauses, that has come 
down to us, from the days of " good Queen Bess." The 
prolix statement of a small matter, ingeniously avoiding 
all reference to the facts aimed at, and rendered still 
more obscure by an interlarding of villainously-bad 
Latin, he regards as the very " perfection of human 
reason;" and we have seen him contend, with an en- 
ergy worthy of a better cause, for the retention of 
abuses, that, to him, were hallowed by Time. 

Physicians, of every school, are filled with preju- 
dices. The Allopathy pointing back with pride to ^^s- 



culapius and Hippocrates, and to the myriads, who have 
consented to be killed or cured, secundem artem, is elo- 
quent of the beauties of the bolus and the blister; — 
with Epicurean gusto, he descants on the excellence of 
Castor-oil, and the beautiful effects of Calomel Jalap ; — 
Emetics, purgatives, tonics, and febrifuges, if we may 
believe him, are the very poetry of practice. Your 
Homoeopath the while, — with his horror of blood- 
letting and blistering, — regards his Allopathic brother 
as little better than a diplomaed Spanish Inquisitor, — 
a graduated and licensed butcher. This disciple of 
Hahnemann woos you to your grass-covered couch and 
final sleep, with sugared pills, and limpid drops. The 
Hydropath raves of the luxury of a plunge-bath in a 
dark pool, with the thermometer at 3*^ ; and holds up 
for your admiration the wet sheets, wherein you may 
shiver, then sweat, back to health. The Grahamite 
toils for a pallid cheek and sunken eye, by gormandiz- 
ing bran bread and saw-dust puddings. In humble 
imitation of Nebuchadnezzar, he grazes on greens and 
cresses. Not one of these, because of the spectacles of 
prejudice, can see a grain of good in his brother. And, 
as with the practitioners, so it is with the patients ; — 
the blind followers of the blind. 

The Divine, who has to do with the concerns of 
eternity ; — to prepare the souls of fellow-sinners for a 
world and a judgment to come, — we might well hope 
to find free from prejudice, in the contemplation of the 
mighty interests committed to his charge. But no ! 
Pastor and people look upon the narrow path which 



they themselves tread, as the very best, if not the only 
road to heaven. The Presbyterian is prejudiced against 
the formalism of the Episcopalian, who insists upon 
kneeling, when he prays, and standing when he praises 
God. The Baptist has his prejudices against your 
Presbyterian, because he does not assent to the essen- 
tiality of immersion to salvation. The Methodist 
roundly rates his Baptist brother, for not admitting the 
benefits of a migratory ministry. And all fall afoul of 
the unfortunate Unitarian, who refuses to look through 
any of their spectacles, and hand him over to uncondi- 
tional damnation. 

The Merchant mixes with all sorts of men in his 
business; finds it to his interest to please all; and, as 
one of a class, is, perhaps, more free than many others, 
from prejudices. 

The Mechanic partakes much of the same character. 

The Politician is a perfect pile of prejudices. In 
his eyes, his opponents have no one good quality ; his 
friends, no faults. Bring forth from the crowd a can- 
didate for any office in the gift of the people, — ^from 
keeper of the pound to President, — and he, who was 
yesterday a worthy man and member of society, is to- 
day pronounced by opponents, (if we credit their vitu- 
perative assertions,) an unfit associate for felons. And 
the higher the office, the more bitter the Billingsgate. 
If, hereafter, the hand of History, searching among the 
records of the past, should by evil chance clutch a 
bundle of party papers, — and the wrong bundle, at 

that, — future ages would read with astonishment, that 

1* 



the world, where a free press was enjoyed, had been 
governed by a set of scoundrels, that would disgrace 
Pandemonium. 

But to approach a step nearer to our subject, and to 
to-day's audience; your horse-man has his prejudices; 
insomuch, that he who is charmed with the graceful 
gait and fine form of the Black-Hawk tribe, can find 
nothing to admire in the well-knit frame and muscular 
action of the other Morgan horses ; while, on his part, 
the Morgan man repays the prejudice, with interest. 
The lover of short-horns has his prejudices in favor of 
a square build and majestic size. The Devon breeder 
boasts that his favorite will come, sleek and well-condi- 
tioned, from a pasture where the Durham would die of 
starvation. And the patriotic Yankee crows a very 
" Chapman " note upon the merits of " Our Native 
Stock." 

Nations have their prejudices. " My son," said a 
turbaned Turk, as he pointed out to a young Moham- 
med, in the streets of Constantinople, a Parisian dandy, 
tricked out in the latest lady-killing fashion ; " My son, 
if ever you forget God and his prophet, you will come 
to look like that /" And the eyes of the horrified little 
Turk, following the direction of his father's finger, 
gazed on the Frenchman, through the mist of Moslem 
prejudice. The Gi-eenlander, guzzling train oil with a 
relish, pities the poor John Bull, who stuffs himself 
with beef and plum-pudding. The wild Indian, who 
trod the Western prairie, looked upon the white man, 



and the comforts of civilization, as the wolf regarded 
the lot of the collar-marked house-dog. 

Not many months ago, tlie principal countries of the 
Earth were represented at an " Exhibition of the In- 
dustry of all Nations ;" and, with her elder sisters, 
came the Cinderella of the family, — Young America. 
Haughty Austria paraded there her gorgeous furniture 
and rich hangings. Sunny France sent her Sevres 
ware ; her ornaments of gold and her ornaments of 
silver ; rich jewels and silks ; — all that could captivate 
the eye of taste and refinement. Great Britain crowded 
her own Crystal Palace with her rich and extensive 
contribution. Italy, Spain, Greece, Prussia, even Tur- 
key were represented there in gold and silver, and pre- 
cious stones, statuary, and fine fabrics ; but Cinderella 
had brought with her only the implements of her toil — 
her daily companions, — which constant practice had 
enabled her to improve upon. There were plows, such 
as the American farmer uses ; differing much from the 
favorite patterns of Englishmen, and all others. There 
were her reapers ; her flour ; her meat-biscuit ; and 
many an other valuable and useful contribution. 

But blear-eyed Prejudice stalked through the long 
aisles of the Palace of Glass ; and in all the show of 
this trans-atlantic sister, the older nations of the earth 
could see no good thing. She was the subject of their 
scorn, and the point of their jests. " Do you wish to 
be in solitude," said a presumptuous oflficial, " go to the 
United States quarter, — the prairie land T 



8 

It was our fortune to have there, among others, one 
man, who deserves honorable mention at this farmer's 
festival, — the Commissioner from the State of New 
York, B. P. Johnson ; then, as now, Secretary of the 
New York State Agricutural Society. For many- 
dreary weeks, he stood almost alone ; sad and desolate, 
amid the neglected contributions of his country. Who 
chanced to visit us, came to sneer. " These Yankee 
plows," said an unusually unprejudiced visitor, one 
day.^ " may do well enough among the rocks and stumps 
of America ; but they are not comparable, for general 
work, to our English plows, or even to the Belgian." 
" Do you know," retorted Johnson, " that in our coun- 
try, we have fields, without a fence, or a rock, or a 
stump, larger than your whole island of Great Britain ; 
and these plows are found to work well there, as they 
will work well anywhere. This flour is made from the 
wheat, you see yonder ; and the wheat was grown on 
land plowed with implements likg these ; that crop of 
wheat averaged 62 1-2 bushels to the acre, weighing 
63 pounds to the bushel." So with the reapers. The 
London Times paraded an account of the American 
department, and christened McCormick's machine, " a 
cross betwixt a flying-machine, a tread-mill, and an 
Astley's chariot." "That flying machine must be 
tested on the field," insisted the sturdy Johnson, " and 
let them laugh that win." The tread-mill was tried. 
The grain, green and storm-soaked as it was, went 
down before it, as if it were the shears of Fate ; and 
loud, though late, were the honest congratulations of 



our discomfited critics. The introduction of the Amer- 
ican Reaper, alone, was by common consent, allowed 
to compensate England for all the gross expenses of 
the Exhibition. In like manner, the plows were found 
to work well on English land. And, finally, the bitter 
opponent of all that is American and republican, — that 
same London Times — confessed that the United States, 
by their contributions for ensuring the good of the 
many, instead of pandering to the luxuries of the few, 
had carried off the palm, in this World's Tournament. 

AVhy was it, that at the eleventh hour, only, was 
justice done to one of the competing countries'? Why 
did thousands, whose voices were afterwards loudest in 
praise, — to their honor be this said, — for so long a 
time speak, but to scoff] Prejudice had pre-occupied 
their minds, and jaundiced their vision. 

As this is a Farmer's Festival, and a great proportion 
of the thousands before me are farmers, I shall not 
enter farther upon the wide field of man's Prejudices ; 
but confine myself to a description of The Prejudices 
OF Farmers. And if, as we have seen, all classes of 
men, and all nations have prejudices, Avhat wonder is 
it, that the farmer has his prejudices ! In thus declar- 
ing, I simply pronounce him to be a man, and not 
unlike other men. 

The first of these prejudices, that now occurs to me, 
is that against, what many of you are pleased to term 
in scorn, Book Farming. It would be exceedingly 
amusing, were it not for the painful reflections that, at 



10 

the same time, occur to one, to mark the look, and tone, 
and manner of ineiFable disgust, with which one of our 
old-time farmers mentions a new-light cultivator, who 
subscribes to agricultural papers that inculcate science, 
and is silly enough to search in printed books, for in- 
formation to direct his labors. " The field, the Field," 
says old Father Stand-still, " is the school-room for me ; 
the plow-tail is the desk I want, and Nature's great 
page, the only book that I peruse." 

What is called Book-farming, is simply the appro- 
priation of the experience of other farmers ; which they, 
or others for them, have thought proper to print. If a 
farmer, known to you to be a good farmer and a truth- 
telling man, tells you that by a system of management, 
differing somewhat from yours, he has nearly doubled 
his crops, you listen with widely-opened ears ; you store 
in memory every particular of his proceeding, and you 
determine to pursue another year, that plan that has so 
well answered the purposes of your neighbor. But, if 
this very man, desirous of benefiting a whole commu- 
nity by his experience, and having too much business 
at home to go abroad repeating his success from man 
to man, by word of mouth, shall WTite out his experi- 
ment, and cause it to be printed in a book, or periodical, 
that moment it becomes a part of book-farming, and 
ceases to have virtue, in the eyes of many. There is a 
magic in types, it would seem, that converts what is 
wisdom when spoken, into folly when printed. 

But the species of Book-farming that above all others 
call into play the prejudices of working farmers, is the 



11 

printed advice of men, who work more with their brains 
than with their hands; — of men, who observe the 
operations of others, and carry into practice, by the 
hands of hired help, what commends itself to their 
judgment, by its fruits ; — of men, who regard agricul- 
ture as a science. 

"What is this but a prejudice against Mind ; — against 
Mind, as applied to agriculture 1 This prejudice is 
unreasonable, not to say absurd. It declares that God 
has given to the farmer reason ; but not that he may 
apply it, as other men do, to the advancement of his 
calling; so that every year shall witness improvements 
in husbandry, as every year witnesses improvements in 
mechanics, or other sciences ; not that by its exereise 
he shall be a better farmer, ten years hence, than he 
was ten years ago, or than his grand-father was before 
him; — for the thorough-going old-fashioned farmer 
scouts the idea of improvement; he is contented to 
tread in the tracks of his progenitors, neither asking 
nor caring whether or not there is any safer and better 
path. 

Now, I am prepared to say, — and, I think, to prove, 
that every other branch of industry, and every occupa- 
tion of man, has advanced toward perfection just in 
proportion as Mind has been brought to bear upon it ; 
and there can no reason be given, why agriculture 
should be an exception. 

War, as a serious occupation of man, is the only one 
that contests antiquity with agriculture. As soon after 
the fall, as there were human beings enough to consti- 



12 

tute a respectable fight, we had war. And the history 
of every nation, that has come down to us through the 
mists of tradition, or appears on the chronicler's page, 
is little less than a narrative of their broils and conten- 
tions. For many centuries, brute strength was the only 
force applied to attain victory; hence the horses of 
ancient history are all prodigies of muscular power, as 
well as of prowess. But, by and by, the mighty inter- 
ests at stake, brought Mind into the conflict, and mere 
muscular force ceased to be pre-eminently esteemed ; 
for the gigantic strength of an Ajax became very weak- 
ness before the little pellet of lead, that Mind had pre- 
pared and propelled. In the days of the Trojan war 
the puny person of Napoleon Bonaparte would have 
contrasted strangely with the huge bulk of the contest- 
demigods ; but it requires little wisdom to assure us, 
that with a battalion, such as earned for him, by their 
rolling discharges at AhouJcir, the name of Ki?i^ of 
Fire ; or with a battery, such as swept the ensanguined 
plain of Borodino, the Grecian heroes would soon 
have been hurried in an unseemly flight to a disorderly 
embarkation; or the walls of Troy been battered about 
the ears of its defenders in a day. 

The " consummation devoutly desired " in battle, is 
to slay, maim, and capture as many of the opposing 
host as possible ; and the records of blood will testify 
that ten thousand can now be murdered, mutilated, or 
imprisoned with greater ease, than a score were killed 
of yore. Mind has worked the change ; and now the 
fate of armies is decided, not by the actual shock of 



13 

arms, but by the skill of most accomplished chess- 
players on the bloody board. Our Mexican war has 
given us a terrible fame, as a martial people, and we 
are justly proud of the prowess of our troops; yet all 
previous history will bear me out in the assertion, that 
a change of generals would have changed the tide of suc- 
cess. The Austrians, who had conquered the French 
in Italy and threatened them with death by the sword or 
by starvation, were in turn chased, like sheep, over the 
mountains, at soon as one Mind was added to the forces 
of the defeated French. 

It is difficult to evade the conclusion, that the mind 
of one man may be equal to the combined force of 
toiling thousands ; yet farmers are found, who, in prac- 
tice, deny that the application of intellect could at all 
advance their interests. 

Let us look at Commerce, — Commerce is the carrier 
of Agriculture, but Mind has been brought to bear upon 
its operations; and in place of the unsafe craft, that 
once " crept cautiously from head-land to head-land," 
the mighty steamship is now employed to draw together 
continents; and there is not a sea, however remote, 
that is not plowed by an American keel ; nor a wind, 
whether loaded with sleet at the pole or warmed by 
the sun's hot breath at the equator, that does not fill 
an American sail and unfold her glorious stars and 
stripes. 

Manufactures are but the maid-servants of Agricul- 
ture, toiling and spinning in her halls ; Mind has of- 
fered her aid ; and the old hand-looms are garretted, to 
2 



14 

make room for machinery, that seems to possess an 
almost diabolical intelligence, — a miraculous power. 

Our Mechanics have given to the farmer the Plow 
and the Reaper, the Drill and the Cultivator, the Hay- 
Cutter and the Grain-Thresher, the Fanning-Mill and 
all the other improvements in agricultural implements, 
of which farmers sometimes make boast. And they 
have been able to do these things by an application of 
mind to their occupation ; — by the study of books, as 
containing the experience of the more eminent mechan- 
ics ; — by earnest thought. 

But to come to the second prejudice of farmers. As 
a class they say, that especial Education is not neces- 
sary for them ; — an education, adapted to their occupa- 
tion, as farmers, to teach them more than they now 
know, of their own business; thereby enabling them 
to improve upon the doings of their predecessors, as 
other classes of men have done ; — an Agricultural 
Education, looking directly at their intended business 
for life. 

The Shipwright, before he is able to launch upon 
the deep, those models of marine architecture, which, 
whether propelled by sails or steam, have alike carried 
our starry flag in triumph on the sea, has, in his youth, 
been apprenticed to a finished master of his craft ; he 
has, so to speak, studied the alphabet of his trade under 
a competent teacher ; and has pored, dreary hours long, 
over models, and lines, and rules laid down in hooks. 
No one of my hearers supposes, that the improvements 



15 

made in ship-building, whereby, even before the intro- 
duction of steam on the ocean, we had already dimin- 
ished the distance to the English coast from our own, 
by full one-half in twenty years, are the result of acci- 
dent, or of fortunate guess work. No ! constant study 
alone enabled the builders to improve upon every 
model, that was launched ; until now, the work of our 
ship-yards is the admiration of the world. It may be 
here added, as an argument for education, that the con- 
ceded superiority of our ship-wrights even over those 
of our mother country, — Noble Old England, — is uni- 
versally and unhesitatingly attributed to the fact, that 
our ship-builders are more generally men of inquiring 
minds and of education in their business. 

The Mason, who rears your house-walls, and spans 
the swift stream with the striding arch, has had his 
years of apprenticeship and education. Much of his 
knowledge must come from books, but he does not 
therefore despise it. 

The Painter, who sketches, with magic pencil, the 
glowing landscape, or '• the human form divine," has 
prepared himself to execute those masterly touches, by 
previous care and study. 

The Lawyer is educated with a steady view to his 
future profession. 

The Physician acquires from books, and from obser- 
vation, the knowledge of the healing art ; that renders 
him a minister of mercy in our dwellings. 

The Divine, whose errand is to warn the sinner to 
" flee from the wrath to come," and to comfort the part- 



16 

ing soul, about to v/ing its way on a dim and untried 
journey, learns to understand and to expound the will 
of his Heavenly Master, by continued perusal of the 
writings of the good and the learned. 

All professions, all trades, all other occupations of 
men testify to the advantages of especial education ; 
but the farmer is yet unconvinced. Men are not born 
with a natural knowledge of law, or of mechanics ; so 
that after a little observation of the practice, they can 
take high rank in their respective occupations ; but the 
farmer claims that he has, from youth, all the knowl- 
edge of his business that is necessary ; and a iew years 
oi practice completes the education. If we allow that 
we merely desire to equal those who have preceded us, 
it may be that we can keep close to them, by walking 
in their footsteps ; but the tendency of the age is to 
improvement ; — the design of our Maker appears to be, 
that each generation of man should excel, in knowl- 
edge, its predecessor ; — but it is idle to expect improve- 
ment, where all are content to he imitators. 

The object of an agricultural education is, undoubt- 
edly, to make jjractical farmers ; and here, at the out- 
set, we stumble over a prejudice, as to what consti- 
tutes a practical farmer. 

My purpose here, as all know, is not, — cannot be, — 
to ridicule my hearers. I have too high a respect for 
those who called me hither, — for those who now so 
kindly listen to me, — for the great subject that we are 
discussing, — for my own character, — to attempt to 
throw ridicule upon any whom I address. But you 



17 

yourselves shall be judges of what yourselves declare 
to be a Practical Farmer. 

To decide whether a stranger, who calls himself a 
farmer, has a right to the title, is not your first glance 
cast upon his clothes, to see if they be farmer-like ; and 
your next upon his hands, to find if they are hardened 
by manual labor. If a man, in a black broadcloth 
dress coat, having hands fair to look upon, and uncal- 
loused by contact with the plow^handle, presents him- 
self to your notice, as a practical farmer, your polite- 
ness may or may not prevent you from laughing in his 
face, at the obvious absurdity of the claim ; but you 
laugh none the less, in your sleeve, as you set him 
down for a fancy -farmer. 

IS'ow, Sirs, what right have you to deride this man's 
pretensions ; and, off'-hand, to pronounce that he is not 
a farmer, as accomplished as yourself, or even able to 
teach you what you have not yet learned, in your own 
occupation % It is because you consider that a practical 
farmer, is he, and he only., who labors with his hands ; 
this would make them tough ; and the necessities of 
his occupation would compel him to wear more homely 
apparel. Is it true, that this it is, and this alone, — 
labor with the hands, — hard work, — that makes the 
practical man] Then is your hired help, who follows 
the plow, day in and day out ; who shivers in the win- 
try stable, and sweats at the harvest, many an hour 
when you are occupied about other affairs, a better 
practical farmer than you ; for ho often works more. 
Then is the ox, that he drives, the most practical, for 

2* 



18 

he wears rougher and tougher garments, has harder 
hands, and does more hard work, than either of you. 

Farmers ! you greatly mistake the meaning of the 
word practical. Stand with me upon the quarter deck 
of a ship, as she strips for a battle with the storm. The 
bullying winds roar. The threatening sky descends 
and contracts. The angry waves lift up their heads. 
The tempest-tost bark, now piercing the sky with her 
trembling masts, now driving headlong into the yawning 
trough of the sea, is freighted with human souls. Do 
they not now, if ever, need the services of a practical 
sailor to conduct them safely through the environing 
perils '? Who then is he, to whom all eyes instinctively 
turn, as under God, their only hope ? Is it that stal- 
wart son of the sea, whose strength is the boast of the 
ship's company ; — who can " swim farther, dive deeper, 
and come up drier, than any man in the crowd ;" — who 
can " hand, and reef, and steer ;" — who can mount therig- 
ing, with a squirrel's agility, and tie all the fast-knots, and 
sliding knots, that are the sailor's pride; and splice, or "lay 
a cable, with the next man ;" — is this he, who is selected 
as the best practical sailor, to command the craft, in her 
hour of danger 1 Far from it, friends. The practical 
man, for the occasion, is yon dapper little fellow, with 
soft, white palms ; sporting, mayhap, a seal ring ; and 
dressed, as if inclined to give to tar and pitch, and all 
other defiling substances, a wide berth. He it is ; — 
this man, who has been educated for his position, and 
who directs the labors of others, — he it is, who is the 
practical sailor. 



19 

If, then, in the hour of danger, when death rages for 
his prey, and the yawning sea shows the ready grave, 
men acknowledge the might of mind ; why is it, that 
farmers will persist in undervaluing it ] and will set up 
sinews before it 1 , 

As we cast our eyes over the country, we see it trav- 
ersed in every direction by roads of iron ; mighty hills 
are demolished, wide valleys are filled up, and swift 
streams are spanned by viaducts. The neigh of the 
steam-horse wakes the echoes, far and near; as with 
eyes of fire and with breath of pitchy smoke, he rushes 
along his iron road with the roar and strength of the 
avalanche. Now if there are things that practical men 
can surely do, the piling of dirt and stones into a long 
narrow heap ; and the digging down of banks of earth ; 
and the hammering of iron and the putting together of 
bolts and nuts and plates, must be among them. But 
we do not give to the thousands of brawny workmen, 
who ply pick and spade, the honor of building the rail- 
road; nor do we credit to the faithful smith, who, 
obedient to directions, has wrought out a rod, and 
again hammered out a plate, the performances of the 
finished locomotive. 

By and by, — as all now admit that a man may be a 
finished practical sailor, who does not defile his palms 
with pitch, oakum, or rattlin-stufF; and as one may 
claim to be a practical builder, rearing huge structures 
of granite, bridging rivers, and moving mountanis, who 
does not harden his hands by the use of spade, pick, or 
crow ; so will we acknowledge that a man may be a 



20 

practical farmer, competent to tlie management of 
acres, who does not toil all the day long at the plow- 
tail. To farm well, as to direct any other operation 
well, the foreman, whether he be master or man, must 
thoroughly understand how things ought to be done ; 
and then the i^roverb will be found to hold true of 
farming, as of most things else, — " the eye of the master 
is of more value than his hands." 

A great bug-bear to plain farmers, and a lion in the 
path of agricultural advancement, is Science; and this 
constitutes a third, in our list of prejudices. 

You have allowed yourselves to indulge the idea that 
a scientLiic farmer is one who goes a-field with his 
mouth crammed full of hard words, and his arms filled 
with gallipots from the drug-store. The manure for 
an acre of land, you have made him declare, he can 
carry in one vest pocket ; and thereupon you retort, 
that the resultant crop he will be able to convey home 
in the other. Common opinion has stuffed his coat 
pocket with books, and his hat with pamphlets ; and 
even from out his bosom peep papers, covered with cal- 
culations and estimates. Thus armed by the bookseller 
and the apothecary, you push him forth to the hay- 
field. Ask him when ought hay to be cut, — in the 
flower or in the seed, — and he answers from " Vol. 6, 
page 281." Speak of the depth of plowing or the 
quantity of manure to the acre; and you cause him to 
squat on the wall, till he can consult the tables of con- 



21 

tents of a score of treatises, and read out the recorded 
experience of a hundred theorizers. 

This man of print and pepper-boxes is not entirely 
the creature of your own creation ; there are originals 
of this portrait, — men of mere pretensions to scientific 
acquirements, the more supercilious and presuming in 
proportion to their shallowness. These are the chaps 
who have created in the minds of farmers a prejudice 
against that science, of which they pretend to be teach- 
ers. These pretenders, these mere book-farmers build 
theories, and then try to twist and squeeze facts to ac- 
cord with them. 

A genius of this class once wandered into a country 
village. A thriving store-keeper of the place had lately 
added to his articles for sale, hides and leather; and as 
an appropriate sign, had drawn a calf s tail through a 
small knot-hole, leaving the bushy end hanging down. 
As he came once in a while to admire the effect of his 
own ingenuity, he observed a man draped in blackj 
with white neckerchief and gold spectacles, intently 
observing, for hour after hour, this pendant tail. 

" My friend," said he at length, " do you w^ant to buy 
hides 1" 

" No ;" abruptly answered the observer, without re- 
moving his eyes from the calf's caudal appendage. 

" Are you a drover f 

" No, I am a philosopher ; and I am trying to satisfy 
my reason, how the calf got through that knot-hole." 

These are the men who have brought ridicule upon 
science, instead of concentrating it upon themselves. 



22 

Now Science is simply knowledge reduced to a sys- 
tem; and this system, which has worked wonders in 
every other department of industry, we commend to you. 
Of Avater, Science has built bridges thousands of miles 
long, and upon this race-course of nations she has 
placed and propels steamers and sailing craft, plying 
with the regularity and despatch of an ordinary ferry- 
boat. The Sun has been instructed as a portrait-paint- 
er. The Lightning is harnessed as an express-man. 
And of late, we learn that the air we breathe has been 
made to labor in the cylinders of Ericsson, with a force 
superior to steam. These are the triumphs of Science, 
— of systematic knowledge. 

Justice calls Science to her aid. They descend into 
the tomb. The dead are made to speak, and tell the 
terrible tale of their violent death. 

With strained eye Science searches the heavens, to 
manifest the wondrous works of God. . Twinkling 
plainly before her upraised glass is a star millions of 
miles distant. AVith patient calculation she traces the 
route traversed by this eye of heaven, back to its far-off 
source ; and tells to her astonished hearers that this 
light, which has travelled at the rate of 20,000 miles in 
a second, has been 3541 years in coming from its dis- 
tant home. Bessel, a Prussian, has discovered the dis- 
tance of a fixed star to be sixty-three billions of miles 
from us. Sixtj/-thrce hillions of miles ! The mind of 
man refuses to conceive of such distance ; he can but 
express it in figures. 



23 

Science, with reverent tread, approaches the very 
council chamber of the Creator ; and, from off the out- 
spread plan of the universe, reads his yet untold de- 
crees. She tells of the day, — and names the very day 
and the hour and the fractions of a minute, — when 
" the face of the sun shall be darkened, and the moon 
shall refuse her light. She tells of the coming of the 
iiery comet. Nay, more. She dares to say that the 
completeness of the Divine plan of the universe, requires 
that a planet should exist, where none has been found; 
and hard upon the heels of the daring assertion comes 
the announcement of the discovery of the required 
planet. 

Science thus bridges oceans, conquers time and space, 
and wrenches their secrets from the heavens ; but farm- 
ers yet are found, who say that^it cannot aid them to 
grow beans, — that it is not practical ! 

The washer-woman laughs at science, as she stands 
over her wash-tub, and uses soap. The smith smiles at 
the pretensions of scientific men, when he tires a wheel. 
But how many years of dabbling in grease and ashes 
would have enabled the w^oman to make a recipe for 
soap ! And how many tons of iron would be heated 
and cooled before the blacksmith, of his own observa- 
tion, would fathom the mystery of expansion and con- 
traction ! 

Science is villified and ridiculed because she has not 
already explained all the secrets of Nature ; and because, 
when inquired of by the farmer, she often errs. Allow 
to her as many years in the field of Agriculture, as she 



24 

has enjoyed, — yes, enjoyed and improved, — in other 
fields, and the results, which she will present, — not sell, 
but present, — to you, will be quite as astonishing and 
quite as incalculable in value. But cramped within 
confined limits, hooted at when she appears abroad, how 
is it possible that Science can do herself justice. 

The practical farmers, — fondly so styling themselves, 
— have had \ in possession " the cattle on a thousand 
hills," and the thousand hills themselves, for over five 
thousand years ; but are now unable to tell how many 
pounds of hay go to a pound of beef. And in this vast 
assemblage we could not agree with unanimity upon 
such questions as these ; — whether is it better, to plant 
large potatoes or small 1 — to top corn, or to cut it up 
at the butt ? — to strip off suckers or not 1 — to cut grass 
in the flow^er or in the seedl 

These are plain questions, which one would suppose 
might be answered by a thirteen-year-old boy, of ordin- 
ary observation ; but five thousand years of feeding and 
killing and cutting up, and of planting and reaping 
and gathering into garners, have not enabled the farmer 
to decide these and other mooted points. Is it, then, 
an exaction on the part of Science, to demand " a clear 
field and no favor" for ten or twenty years, at least 1 Is 
it unreasonable 1 

Few valuable inventions or improvements have re- 
sulted from guess-work, or from following in the cider- 
mill-track of an established routine. So the farmer may 
vainly hope to improve upon the knowledge of his pre- 
decessors, if he studies only to follow in their footsteps ; 



25 

and the success that is the result of chance, and not of 
calculation, is a poor dependance for him, who relies for 
his daily bread upon the bounteous yield of the soil. A 
certain system is necessary to obtain facts ; and by these 
facts we must alter and amend our system. Most good 
farmers, even among those most loud-mouthed in decry- 
ing Science, are, in the main, scientific farmers. The 
great operations of their farms are conducted upon a 
system, born of observation and experience. Thus they 
know, by a series of observations, that it is not well to 
sow wheat upon newly-manured land ; but in preference 
plant corn there, and follow it with a wheat crop. But 
they will not carry this system into the details of farm- 
management, and learn the whys and the wherefores, — 
the causes and effects, — by the same system, watchful 
and long-continued, that taught them the prominent 
facts. Science unlocks these mysteries, shows the 
reasons of things and tells to the inquiring farmer, that 
an over-supply of ammonia will force his wheat, when 
sown on land dressed with green manure, into a rank 
and unnatural luxuriance ; — that the stalk will be weak 
in texture and unable to support the head of grain ; and 
that the wheat will lodge. 

Precisely thus, medical men, before the day of Hervey, 
were acquainted with the fact, that a bandage tightly 
encompassing the arm or leg, would cause the veins to 
stand out like whip-cords ; but until Science enabled 
Hervey to proclaim his theory of the circulation of 
THE BLOOD, uo rcasou could be given for the phenome- 
non. Ere Jenner lived, it was known that milk-maids 

3 



26 

were liable to an eruptive form of disease, caught of 
the cows ; it was noticed, too, that those thus attacked 
were not subject to the small-pox: but Science, — a 
series of observations, directed by an enlightened rea- 
son, — proved to him, alone, from these generally known 
facts, that Vaccination was a perfect shield from that 
dreadful scourge. Thus farmers know the leading 
facts, which are not only important, but indispensable 
to successful cultivation ; but it is the scientific farmer, 
only, who makes of these a key to unlock the inner 
chamber of the temple of knowledge ; he it is, who 
uses every fact as a stepping stone to reach a higher. 

Scientific Agriculture is the cultivation of the 
earth by rule, and not by guess-work. Indeed, when 
and where guessing ends and system begins, then and 
there is the birth, and the birth-place of Science. 

How many farms, gentlemen, within the reach of 
your observation, are, by this definition, scientifically 
cultivated 1 On how many is the depth of the plowing 
gauged by the depth of the soil, the character of the 
subsoil, and a wise intention to render the fertile loam 
deeper year after year, inch by inch "? How many farm- 
ers of your acquaintance, who enter on a farm with a 
soil three inches deep, undertake, as they well and 
easily might, to render it in ten years, twelve inches 
deep? I would tell you here, that the experiments of 
thousands of farmers have proved, that by thrusting 
the point of your plow one inch, or three-quarters of an 
inch deeper at each plowing and bringing to the sur- 



27 

face so much of the inert subsoil, to be operated on by 
the atmosphere and to be benefitted by the manure 
year after year, you will to this extent increase your 
active fertile soil, and gradually create another farm, 
as it were, under your old one. But this would be 
scientific farming ; and, consequently, in the opinion of 
too many farmers, mere nonsense; notwithstanding that 
facts, plenty as blackberries, confront them with evi- 
dence. 

On how many farms in this State, or in any State, is 
the manure applied with sufficient knowledge of the 
component parts, and consequently of the wants, of the 
soil ? On how many is the manure itself prepared and 
preserved, so that it retains all of its valuable constitu- 
ents ? Why, gentlemen, if one were to say that plants, 
to thrive, require food in certain proportions ; and that 
if one of the necessary substances is not present in the 
soil, and is not supplied in the manure, the plant can- 
not thrive ; and that in proportion as you have or 
apply the precise quantity of each ingredient necessary, 
so nearly do you come to getting the maximum crop, — 
you would set it down at once, in scorn, as scientific 
farming! And yet how else do you account for the 
fact, that one man grows a hundred bushels of corn to 
an acre and another but twenty ^. Why, clearly, be- 
cause the land whereon grew the hundred bushels was 
naturally, or by scientific treatment, in a proper condi- 
tion for corn-bearing, — had in its womb all the neces- 
sary kinds, and enough of each kind of food, that the 
young and the growing plant required for its leaves, 



28 



its stalk, its tassel and its ear. And how do you ac- 
count for the fact, that you do not get an equal crop 
on the same ground the next year ? Why, because the 
first crop has eaten up a good share of the food in the 
ground-pantry; and the third season, (if any man is 
silly enough to try corn again on the same ground, 
without having supplied food by manure,) the third 
crop would find the shelves pretty well cleaned ; and 
the progeny of that year would be pigmies. 

On how many farms in New Hampshire is an ac- 
curate calculation made of the cost of growing different 
crops, so as to decide which is the most profitable to 
raise 1 On how many farms is an account kept of out- 
lay and income from each field and each animal, that 
the prudent husbandman may know where is the 
mouse-hole in his meal-bin"? This is not done because 
it would be scientific farming. To be sure, a merchant 
who pretended to carry on an extensive business with- 
out keeping books, and without taking now and then 
" an account of stock ;" or who continued to deal in 
certain styles of goods, without knowing whether he 
was making or losing money by the operation, would 
be held insane. But surely that is no reason why a 
man, who prides himself on being a plain practical 
farmer, should farm by arithmetic. 

Do farmers hereabout, or farmers generally any- 
where, attempt gradually to improve their seed by early 
and judicious selection ; and by always planting the 
best, instead of reserving the worst for that purpose ; 
or do they sell all that is fit to be sold, and keep the 



29 



poorest for home use and for seed 1 This gradual im- 
provement of seed, such as Mr. Brown, on an island in 
Lake Winnepesaukee has made in corn — known as 
Brown corn — and as many others have made in many 
plants, and fruits, and flowers, by the simple selection 
of seed, with judicious cultivation, — this smacks rather 
too much of Science, for a practical farmer. 

Scientific Agriculture recognizes the fact, that ma- 
nures are not economically applied, to exert their best 
influences, upon soils where water too much abounds ; 
and recommends drainage. " And so," say you, " does 
every practical farmer, who knows beans." Well, per- 
haps every practical farmer does not " know beans," or 
he would recognize them in a good share of the ready- 
burned coffee, that he buys ! At any rate, how different 
the operations of the systematic and of the guess-work 
drainer. The first discovers the secret springs, that 
supply the superfluity of water ; and so locates his 
drains, and so to cut off the vein before it opens on the 
surface. While nine-tenths of your practical men dig 
ditches in the lowest part of the meadow, where the 
water stands : — forgetful that an ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure. This subject of drainage opens 
too vast a field for me to venture upon it at this time. 

This same rule of prevention causes your scientific 
farmer to do all things in season. He stirs up the 
earth between the drills of his crops, with the hoe or 
cultivator, to kill the weeds, before they attain to great 
size, and strength, and appetite. There is no such glut- 
ton as your weed. Like a sharper among honest folks, 

3* 



30 

it defrauds the legitimate owner of what rightfully be- 
longs to him. With coolest impudence, it steals from 
the young and tender plant three fourths of its food, 
and grows in consequence three inches to its one ; Mr. 
Weed over-tops it ; he bullies it, as it were, after redu- 
cing its strength by starvation. By and by, he claims 
the ground as his own, and flourishes in undisturbed 
possession. He becomes seedy at length ; establishes 
a large famil)'', in good quarters to rob succeeding crops 
of potatoes and carrots ; and is only uprooted and pun- 
ished when he has about run the length of his evil 
course. 

Agriculture is understood to express, not merely the 
cultivation of the land, but also all the operations inci- 
dental to it, or consequential upon it. Accordingly, we 
find Science in the Stock-yard. The same enlightened 
system, that prevails in the field, is introduced here. 
Acting upon the well-established rule that " like begets 
like," she selects fit moulds, and builds up breeds of 
cattle for the shambles, square and ponderous, like the 
lordly Durhams ; and again for the yoke she prepares 
the beautiful and agile Devon ; for the milk-pail she re- 
serves families of each of these breeds, in which big 
udders and profuse secretions of milk are hereditary. 
For the churn she shows the gentle Jersey cow ; seven 
quarts of whose milk will yield a pound of butter. 

Among Swine, this same wise System, — a synonyme 
for Science — has produced the Suffolk, the Middlesex, 
and other breeds, that run to fat, as naturally as a tur- 
tle-fed alderman ; — they eat, they grunt, they sleep their 



31 



lives away, until they have attained to a very Lambert- 
ism of obesity : and then, with a gurgling in the throat 
they change into pork and are laid down in the barrel. 
These noble horses, too, whose ardent nei. h comes 
even now to our ears, were fashioned by Science ! Ask 
the breeder if the fine points of his prancing steed are 
come by chance] and he will indignantly tell you, No. 
He was bred systematically, or, as we chose to call it, 
" for short," scientifically. He has regard to the best 
points of sire and dam,^ and with careful consideration 
has produced the animal we admire. 

Science is at home in the manger and in the manure 
cellar. She tells us what feed goes to the making of 
bone and muscle for the young and growing calf; and 
what makes fat on the stalled ox. She tells us what 
gives speed, — because it supplies the wear and tear of 
tendon and bone, — to the racer ; and what will lap the 
lazy pig in Elysium, until he wakes to the sight of the 
gleaming knife, struggles, groans and dies. 

So with the manure heap, she is a safe and learned 
counsellor. She tells you that, when exposed, its 
strength is washed away by the rains ; and darkening 
the current of yon bubbling brook, is carried away 
from you, forever. She bawls in your deaf ears, " house 
it ; prepare a cellar beneath your barn, or at least, a 
roof to protect it from the thievish element." She points 
out to your wilfully blind eyes the escaping gases, dis- 
engaged by the sun, and flying off upon the wind's 
wings. Doing nothing by halves, she holds out to 
your closed and retracted hand, absorbents and divisors 



82 

— such as charcoal dust, and peat, and muck. She tells 
you of the value of Guano and other fertilizers, and in- 
structs you in the mode of applying them. 

In the Garden, and the Orchard, and the Green-house, 
Science has been made welcome, and we see her doings 
there. The mean Crab has become the blooming Bald- 
win ; the bitter Sloe, or the Wild-Bidlace^ has been 
changed into the precious Plum ; the Beam-tree has no 
longer its small and acerb berries, but bears bouncing 
Bartletts. The wild CoIe-tvo7% that grew, small and 
thriftless, on the sea-shore cliffs, has been improved into 
the big-headed Bergen Cabbage. Pitiful weeds or insig- 
nificant field-fiowers are made blooming ornaments of 
the garden and the green-house. Here, in Horticulture, 
may be seen some of the rarest triumphs of Agricultu- 
ral Science. 

In view of what has been said of Scientific Agricul- 
ture, many of my hearers will say, — " Why, if this is 
your scientific farming, we have been scientific farmers 
all our lives without knowing it. We plow, we ma- 
nure, we drain, we breed cattle and swine and horses, 
we house our manure, we prune and scrape our trees, 
and everything — just as you say Scientific Agriculture 
commands, — upon a system that practice has proved to 
be correct." 

Gentlemen, fellow-farmers, I am fully aware of the 
fact, that many of the sturdiest opposers of Science are, 
practically, Scientific farmers, denouncing Science as a 
name without examination or inquiry. 



33 

A fourth prejudice of farmers is against, what are 
sneeringly denounced as, New-fangled notions. 

New-fangled notions ! And why may not the new- 
fangled be as valuable as the old-fa^ugled notions'? 
Gentlemen, we make the manifest miitake of looking 
backward, toward the infancy of the world, for knowl- 
edge ; and towards its darkness, for light. Does wisdom 
come of experience ? We have the experience of all 
the farmers from Abel's day, down to your President 
Nesmith's ; and our own little stock, added thereto, to 
be handed dov/n to our children. Does wisdom come 
of travel and observation 1 We can now, with ease 
and comfort, fly over a hundred miles of road ; where 
our forefathers with difficulty accomplished one. Does 
wisdom come of reading] We have libraries of books, 
where our ancestors could boast'of single volumes. And 
yet we prate, constantly, of the wisdom of our forefathers^ 
and we denounce, what they never had a chance of 
knowing, because it has not the aroma of antiquity 
about it. Gentlemen, I reverence age, as much as any 
one ; but if wisdom comes of age, on the heads of this 
generation are the hoar-frosts of five thousand years ; 
and we, who now live, are the true, grey-hearded^ 
Ancients ! 

We have thus more years to boast than our fore- 
fathers ; we can acquire more knowledge by travel, 
and a comparison of notes than they, because of our 
increased facilities ; we have all the learning of their 
day, and more, handed down to us ; we have all 
their experience, with our own added lot ; and yet 



34 

we are told to regard these men — with their no more 
than equal intelligence, and inferior privileges, as 
oracles. We don't ride to mill now, as some of our 
grandfathers did, with the meal in one end of the 
sack ; and, to balance it, a stone in the other. Why- 
then should we keep up other of their antiquated 
notions ? One of two things must we choose ; — 
either to acknowlege, with mortification, that the race 
of men has dwindled in intellect; or that the preju- 
dices, so prevalent against new-fangled notions, — merely 
because they are new, and conflict with the expe- 
rience of a gone generation, — is absurd. 

One more point, and I have done. We find Preju- 
dices at our firesides. The fond mother — who sees in 
the unfolding mind of her young son evidences of more 
than ordinary intellect, — thinks that his talents will 
be thrown away, or hid under a bushel, if he is made 
a farmer of ; and straightway determines, in her own 
mind, that her darling shall shine as a lawyer, or " wag 
his jaw in a pulpit." The poet has said of woman, 
that 

When she will, she loill, you may depend on't ; 

And when she won't, she wonH ; and there's an end on't.' 

And those of us who have wives — all of us, knoAv how 
much of truth there is in the description ! 

Mr. President, I see the reproachful glances cast at 
me by the fairer portion of my audience, for this apt 
quotation; and I hasten to add that another poet, equally 



35 

well versed in human nature, and of equal authority, 
writes thus : 

" The lords of creation men we call, 
And they think they rule the whole ; 
But they 're much mistaiicn after all, 
For they 're under woman's control." 

There is much of truth in hoth these descriptions. 

But let me not, Sir, while I occupy this responsible 
position, appear, even in jest, to undervalue woman ; 
faithful, untiring, devoted Woman ! Man's first, last, 
best comforter on earth. Cradled upon her bosom, and 
shielded in her protecting arms ; we pass, happily, the 
helpless years of infancy. She is our guardian and 
guide, in youth ; the friend and faithful counsellor of 
our manhood ; and our heavy head rests in death, as at 
birth, upon the true heart of woman ! 

Oh, Woman ! your's is a noble destiny ! To you is 
committed the charge of the generation to come. To 
know what the world will be, when we are laid 

" In the deep stillness of that dreamless state 
" Of sleep that knows no waking joys again ! " 

We need but to ask, " What are the mothers, now ? " 
In your hands, for evil or for good, is (under God,) the 
fate of the world. The old gnarled oak can be bent into 
no position ; but that, in which the winds and the 
frosts of its youth have left it ; but the tender twig, 
hereafter to be, perhaps, the pride of the forest, is under 
your control: "just as the twig is bent, the tree 
inclines." If then the generation of farmers, who are 
to succeed us, do not cause the glad earth to smile, 
amid the rich abundance of her good gifts to man ; 



36 

it will be, because the women of this generation have 
not rightly reared the men of the next. 

It is a prejudice of some, Sir : that woman is defrau- 
ded of her rights, by the laws, enacted by man. Old 
grannies in pantaloons, and pantaletts, preach the doc- 
trine of the equality of the sexes ; and contend that 
woman should hustle and elbow, among the dense 
crowd, a lane to the polls ; while, in placid dignity, at 
home, she may be moulding a mind to sway the State ; 
— that she is down- trodden and oppressed, because not 
eligible by the breath of popular favor, to posts of pre- 
ferment. Woman is eligible to a seat in the kingdom 
of God ; and one of her highest, holiest, happiest, 
duties is to hasten the coming of His kingdom on 
earth, by preaching His truths to the listening and 
believing ear, that is now all her own, — the child, in the 
innocence of his early years. E£is throne on earth, is in 
the hearts of her husband and children ; through them, 
ruling the world ; and in them, peopling Heaven. 

To return to the prejudices at home. Sir; it is but 
the necessary consequence of the prejudices, we enter- 
tain against the application of mind to agriculture; 
that talents are looked upon as buried, it their posses- 
sor is brought up as a farmer; — he has no theatre, we 
say, whereon to display his abilities. Hence, when 
we see rising up at our fire side, a fine boy with 
rich promise of rare faculties ; instantly we decide, 
that he must be liberally educated, that hereafter he 
may shhie as " a bright particular star" in one of the 
professions, — the Law, Medicine, or the Ministry. 



37 



Does he give evidence of possessing a shrewd and cal- 
culating mind, — he is at once put in training for a 
merchant ; that he may rival those princes of trade,, 
whose 



• argosies, with portly sail, — 



Like seignors, and rich burghers of the flood ; ] 

Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, — 

Do over-peer the petty trafickers, 

That curt'sey to them, — do them reverence — 

As they fly by them with their woven wings." 

The boy is educated from his early youth, with a view 
to a certain profession or business ; and he is made to 
feel, — we are all willing to acknowledge, — that, if he 
expects success, he must depend upon the exercise of 
his intellectual faculties ; — he must apply, not his 
hands only, hut his mind also, to his occupation. 

Do I do wrong to point your attention, fellow far- 
mers, to the fact ; that herein we stultify ourselves 
and debase our own calling, — making it a mere mat- 
ter of thews and sinews, — while we cry up the pro- 
fessions, and trade, as calling for the exercise of those 
faculties, which, alone, make man superior to the brute 
creation ? Can we wonder, that our children should re- 
gard farming, as a " low business for a lad of spirit ; " 
and that, deserting the homestead, they crowd the pro- 
fessions, and the counting houses of merchants, as the 
avenues to wealth and distinction ; — too often finding 
them the roads to disappointment and beggary ; or if 
successful, equal with their highest hopes, too often 
4 



38 

ready to acknowledge, at the summit of their ambition 
that 

" 'tis better to be lowly born, 

And range with humble livers, in content ; 
Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, 
And wear a golden sorrow." 

We, Sirs, ^ve have filled the cities with our children ; 
we have driven them into temptation, and amid the 
haunts of vice ; when, unprotected by saving home in- 
fluences, — the father's word of warning and the mother's 
bed-side prayer, — they have too often filled the drunk- 
ard's or the gambler's grave ; or, broken in health and 
spirit, come home but to die. And we have done this 
by undervaluing and degrading our own calling. 

And in thus educating our children, we stultify our- 
selves; because we deny our own definition of a 
PRACTICAL MAN ; WO coufess that he who writes the le- 
gal documents is not, necessarily, the practical lawyer ; 
but, rather, he who uses the labor thus performed ; and 
that he, who packs up the boxes and bales of merchan- 
dize, and toils in the drudgery of the store, is not the 
practical merchant, but a mere porter; — in a word, that 
MIND makes the Man. 

"Mr. President and Gentlemen, I have now, to the 
best of my ability, discussed the subject in hand. 
Faithfully, so far as I knew it, I have declared " the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." If 
to-day, I have opened the eyes of one individual in this 
mighty assemblage, to the influence and effect of his 
Prejudices, my labor has not been spent in vain. Gen- 



39 

tlemen, we may boast of our achievements abroad 
and of our glories at home ; but as " he that ruleth his 
spirit " is better " than he that taketh a city," so no 
campaign is so glorious, as that which shall terminate in 
the overthrow of our Prejudices. 

General Pierce being recognized by his fellow-citizens, and 
called forth when the address was concluded, was greeted with 
enthusiastic cheers, silence being restored, Gen. Pierce spoke as 
follows : 

GEN. Pierce's remarks. 

A speech from me, Mr. President would be out of 
place, and if it were otherwise, I would not mar the fine 
effect of what has been so appropriately and eloquently 
said by the gentleman who has just resumed his seat, 
by following with any crude remarks of my own. I 
hope that the address wdll be printed, and that it will 
find a place in the dwelling of every farmer in the 
State. 

This has been one of the bright, pleasant days, which 
now and then cast their radiance over our pathway — 
dispelling the rigid expression from the brow of cafe 
— animating, with a rich glow, whatever meets the eye, 
and quickening within us all the sources of innocent 
enjoyment. I have in common with this vast audience, 
felt its power ; and the satisfaction it has brought was 
at the moment alloyed only, by the regret, that such 
holidays, when practical improvement, delightful relax- 



40 

ation, and genial sympathy, were so happily blended, 
were not of more frequent occurrence. 

The exhibition is, in all respects worthy of the State; 
the preparation and arrangement highly honorable to 
the gentlemen to whose hands they been committed, 
and to this county, so distinguished for the grandeur of 
its mountains, the beauty of its lake scenery, and the in- 
telligence, industry, and probity of its sturdy population. 

More than this will not be expected of me under ex- 
isting circumstances. I came to see, to hear, and enjoy, 
not to speak ; and I must ask my friends to excuse me, 
expressing only the hope, that, the reflection of " the 
Great Spirit "* might never be cast upon a population 
less prosperous and happy. 

^Designation of Winnipissiogee ; the Indian name of the beautiful lakes in 
the centre of Belknap county. 



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